Final Thoughts

Well, they might not be entirely final. But there's an ending to be marked here, so I intend to mark it.

I'm heading home for the foreseeable, as my visa runs out soon, my flat contract runs out tomorrow, and my degree is done. It's super official now--I've not only sent off some giant boxes to journey overseas at a leisurely pace until they get to the States, but I've also been informed that my thesis corrections have been accepted, so I can now for-real call myself 'Doctor'. So now, I'm on the road to the next thing.

What that thing is remains unknown at the moment. I guess we'll see.

Studying in Britain has been amazing for me. I can't really stress it enough. Anglophilia aside, I've just met some excellent people here, and been to some amazing places. Out of necessity, I've gotten better at being a real person. And the old, difficult, self-conscious personality of this country has suited me in ways I can't fully articulate, but which make me feel at home, and have made me comfortable even at the earliest stages of being here. But really, what matters is that I am going to miss the friends I've made here the most, and I'm going to miss them terribly. The internet will keep us close, but it won't be the same.

Academia-wise, I still have a long way to go. I can't claim to be a great scholar, but I've learned a lot. I've got a lot of motivation to learn more. And hell, I've written 200-ish pages of stuff. And it might not even be terrible stuff! I guess that's worth noting.

The coming months are going to be strange and hard and filled with bragging about myself for the benefit of various job applications, but no matter what, I've a feeling that I'll be thinking about cool weather and dark pubs, trudging up steep cobblestoned hills, of taking trains to everywhere, and out the window seeing brick rows of flats circling round Durham Cathedral and lining the bridges over the Tyne and the Wear.

Damn, I'm going to miss this place so much.

also:

I cut off all my hair again!

And for free as well--hurrah for loyalty cards.

To be honest, I'm mostly excited about not having to use so much shampoo and conditioner now; it was getting a bit excessive.

well, it's begun

I had a fantastic time back in the States, going to J's wedding, partying and catching up with old friends and meeting new ones, and then going down the California coast before relaxing a bit at home. But now, it is back to work.

I have sent in my first postdoc applications. I hope I did an okay job on them. The opportunities are very exciting! And start very soon, so at least I will find out whether I'm in or out very soon. One of them is particularly intriguing, and will let me work on exactly the things I want to work on, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for that one.

I'm also flagging up applications for things starting up next fall. It's all very...daunting. The pressure of more immediate deadlines is at least keeping me distracted from the vast amount of competition that exists in the States.

...LOVE ME, UNIVERSITIES, PLEASE LOVE ME.

Other than that, it's article-writing time! I've got a thousand words down on Danny Boyle and the London Olympics, and feel cautiously good about it. It's very refreshing to be working on something that doesn't have a huge canon of scholarly attention looming behind it. I can actually read all of the things do with it in a reasonable amount of time, which is strange and wondrous. I am rediscovering the pleasures of working in cafés. Also, journalism is generally much easier to read than long tomes on Goethe.

Also, I just booked tickets home, and for the first time, registered myself as 'Doctor'. British Airways immediately sent me a confirmation email addressing me as Dr K. This was disproportionately thrilling.

Ta for now--I went to Hadrian's Wall this weekend, which was good fun, but I haven't processed all the photos yet, so those will be up as soon as I get a chance to do that.

Lindisfarne

I'm procrastinating doing my corrections, so it's time for photos!

I went to Holy Island this past weekend on a day trip for postgrads. It's a semi-detached island off the coast of Northumbria, where St. Cuthbert hid from Vikings, and the English defended themselves from the Scots, and is presently home to extremely cute cottages, a surprisingly small castle on a very big hill, and also a meadery. Also, some great views.

Unfortunately, the afternoon did not begin auspiciously, weather-wise:

The shoreline...

...leading up to the castle

 I struggled mightily trying to relearn how to make the camera do things.

Raindrops on grass. ART WAS ATTEMPTED.

 I completely bollixed up the interior shots, but it was surprisingly unimpressive--the castle had been renovated into a summer home at the end of the nineteenth century, leading to it becoming a rather cosy place, all told. The only shot that came out at all was the kitchen:

Cosy!

The hill is largely responsible for the castle looking as imposing as it does.

I attempt nature photography.

A slightly nicer shot of the exterior? Bit too dark, had weird problems with colour. OVERCAST LIGHTING! *shakes fist*

But then, miraculously, while I had lunch in a pub, the skies cleared, and the rest of the afternoon became glorious, just in time to check out the priory and graveyard. Huzzah for picturesque ruins!

The island in the background is the castle. It looks far more impressive from that distance.

Graveyard shot.

More high contrast shenanigans. It was so bright all of a sudden!

Further attempted nature photography. Totally a high concept commentary on life and death, with that little bird and the headstone. I totally did that on purpose.Totally.

The path leading away from the priory, towards the beach.

The beach! I really like this shot, actually. That kid's red jacket was fortuitous.

Since the island is only cut off during high tide, when the tide is low you can walk out and everything is covered in seaweed and mussels. I felt bad about walking on them. Also, there's a tiny crab hiding in this photo, under a rock. It refused to be photogenic.

A view of the priory and church from the beach.

There are giant obelisks on the English coast to serve as guides for ships, presumably, but they mostly just look cool and alien from the island.

Someone attempting to fish.

More obelisks!

And again.

Clearly, I only sort of remembered how to do photography by the end. But all in all, it was a very enjoyable day out.

long-overdue updaaaate

So, uh. Doctorate accomplished! Waiting on my list of corrections. I've been told I may need to gently prod the department into giving them to me. I have a few months to finish them, in any case. All in all, it was an almost disconcertingly painless experience.

I'm currently occupying my time with building an online archive for the journal of the H.G. Wells Society. It's fun work, though it took me a long time to get back into the swing of web design. I've hopefully gotten most of the programming out of the way now, so now it's just figuring out how to upload and organise the issues. I've also been asked to maybe update the Society's main website as well, which is should be fun and a little more straightforward, considering it doesn't require the installation of a huge journal framework, which the other site did. (It is also fairly in need of a facelift, so I'm kind of itching to make it pretty). And hey, maybe then the Society will hire me for more work! I like work.

Tomorrow I leave for Prague to go toodle around with the choir, sing some things, and drink good Czech beer. After that, however, I will continue with the Wells project and then actually start looking at the long-term job market (and probably sinking into a pit of despair in the process, argh). Oh, and also I have to start writing some articles for publication. That will be more fun.

This continues to be a very strange time. But at least I can sign off as "Dr" now.

whoops this month is terrifying

It is May Day, and I feel like yelling MAYDAY, MAYDAY.

...I may be slightly busy.

Viva is set, as previously stated, and my friends are doing me the huge favour of running a mock viva a week or so beforehand so I can get used to answering questions and not looking like a fool in the process. They are great, and are reading so much of my rambling, it's amazing.

I'm also doing a lunchtime recital for the Music Society, which happened sort of on a whim, but I'm hoping it'll garner some donations to the choir, and I'll get to play on a full concert grand, which is thrilling. Liszt and Debussy, a hard but familiar programme, and I'm sort of terrified, but also excited. Should be fun! Provided I don't crash and burn.

I have also landed a short research assistantship which will involve building a website and digitising the archives of an H.G. Wells journal, which is rad. I am going to be super rusty at web design, though, so it will also be a bit of an adventure. I have to get in contact with the professor I'm working with to see when I start, but it will likely be soon.

And finally, conference. I'm still not done with my paper, but it's almost there. It's been really difficult trying to pare down all of the various interconnected thoughts I have on the topic into something both coherent and succinct, and cutting and pasting from my thesis was really not helpful in that regard. Hopefully I will finish it tonight.

In sum, I am running on adrenaline and a multitasking haze for the foreseeable future. I'm super glad I took some time off before all this.

my day of judgement has been scheduled

Viva is officially on 19 May.

It is slightly too far away to commence freaking out, but it does mean that I need to finish my conference paper STAT so I can study up at my leisure. My two weeks of being completely useless are now over. How very strange this all is.